Losses make for a frustrating start for Sound Tigers

Michael Fornabaio

Updated 12:41 am, Tuesday, October 29, 2013

BRIDGEPORT -- Six games, one-thirteenth of the way through an AHL season as Ryan Strome put it, and the Bridgeport Sound Tigers have yet to win in regulation. They have only one win beyond regulation. They have three of a possible 18 points.

They've scored 12 goals while allowing 25, as coach Scott Pellerin points out, and it seems like piling on to point out that one of those 12 was a bonus goal for that shootout win of theirs.

"It's hard to pinpoint one thing," defenseman Calvin de Haan said. "I don't know. It's just starting to get frustrating."

It's hard to fathom how it couldn't be frustrating.

The Sound Tigers are near the bottom of the league on special teams. They've been outscored on their own power play. They gave up five goals in the second period Saturday at Syracuse, a 5-0 loss.

"It's no one's fault in particular," de Haan said. "We just (stunk) as a team."

It doesn't help that a young team has been left even younger the past few games: Captain Chris Bruton and their most experienced defenseman, Joe Finley, are both out with upper-body injuries.

"You can say that we're young, but that excuse is getting a bit old," Strome said. "We're six games in, a thirteenth of a season the way we look at it. It's a segment we lost."

It's Bridgeport's worst six-game start in the franchise's 13 seasons.

The 2005-06 team started 2-3-1-0, though it had allowed 34 goals, including eight two different times to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. In 2003-04, Bridgeport started 0-3-2-0, won its sixth game, lost its seventh in overtime, then went unbeaten in 20.

Pellerin and staff have been trying different tactics, different methods. Saturday's game featured some changes in the lines to try to spark some offense; the biggest change was reversed Monday at the Wonderland of Ice, with Johan Sundstrom back at center, at least for the day.

"We tried a number of different things in regards to lines," Pellerin said. "It's like we're at tryouts again. We'll see what kind of chemistry we can generate, who's going to work with whom."

An odd schedule may not have helped. This week is the first time Bridgeport plays three games in a week, beginning Wednesday at Hartford.

"It seems like it's everything right now," de Haan said."I know everyone's frustrated, whether it's the coaching staff, the players, the training staff. It's not for lack of effort."